Investigators have disclosed that a diverted Air Canada Boeing 787-9's crew had to declare a Mayday four times over a low-fuel situation before being given approach clearance to Hyderabad.

The aircraft had originally been bound for Mumbai but was shuttled between alternate airports owing to capacity problems.
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The aircraft (C-FGEI), which departed Toronto on 18 September, had been operating AC46 to Mumbai with 177 passengers and 14 crew members.

But Mumbai air traffic controllers cancelled the approach after a runway excursion involving another aircraft. The bulletin does not specifically identify this incident, but a SpiceJet Boeing 737-800 suffered an excursion shortly before the 787's arrival.

The Canadian bulletin says the 787 entered a hold for 1h but its crew then opted to divert to their alternate.

It does not identify the alternate but states that air traffic control informed the crew that they could not be accommodated owing to reaching maximum capacity.

The crew then chose to divert a second time to Hyderabad, after consulting with the carrier's operations centre, only to be informed by air traffic control en route that Hyderabad had already reached maximum capacity and could not handle the flight.

According to the bulletin Air Canada informed investigators that air traffic control "continued trying to divert the flight or attempted to place it in another hold", adding that the crew had to declare a Mayday over the aircraft's low-fuel situation four times before being cleared for a straight-in approach to Hyderabad's runway 09L.

Flight AC46, which has a scheduled duration of around 14h 30min, had been operating for around 17h at the time of arrival. The aircraft landed safely.

If your comment has to do with the circumstances in this situation, I would say it was out of the pilots' control. Now if you just mean in general, well they're certainly better than most airlines in Canada and the US...although they pale in comparison to assorted Asian and European providers.

Man and I was just on a air Canada 787 a few weeks ago. Love that plane. The dimming windows are great.

Originally Posted by Unknown Soldier

Airport overcrowding is a real problem because of how explosively a lot of these cities have grown and airport expansion and construction has simply not kept pace.

There's a running joke in China that they don't have traffic jams, they have airplane jams.

Not really a joke. Everytime I fly out of Shanghai pudong Airport I'm stuck on the ground for at least 45 min in "traffic". Luckily it does seem like they factor that in for connecting flight planning lol.

Don't worry, they haven't had a fatal crash since 1983. Though the events of this year isn't ... great...

Originally Posted by Morgenstern

If your comment has to do with the circumstances in this situation, I would say it was out of the pilots' control. Now if you just mean in general, well they're certainly better than most airlines in Canada and the US...although they pale in comparison to assorted Asian and European providers.